Dog Handler Needed, Inquire Within

Various family demands mean more time off the mountain than usual, of late. That, along with the fact that I’m STILL coughing a full three weeks after getting sick, have resulted in a very boring time for Lilly. She adjusts to fetch-only or cuddle-only days, but clearly Lilly needs more.

So, imagine how much laughing ensued, when Tom announced that he and Lilly “did a little agility” the other day while I was gone.

“You should have seen her,” he boasted. “She was fast!”

He also marveled at how well Lilly changed directions when asked. I’m fairly certain he didn’t use the correct verbal cue or body language for that (HERE), but there you go.

The next day, Tom wanted to show off their teamwork and handling skills. I watched from inside, out of the wind and cold, as they ran a few loops through our small at-home agility course.

It was super sweet to watch the two of them romping around. That’s a good sign (yes?) that she’ll do agility with him too?

And, yet, I nearly croaked when he kept going after she missed her weave entrances and after she popped out a pole or two early (several times as they looped and looped around).

I could tell you that I was a reasonable wife, that I did not shriek at him, but that would be a lie.

Well, maybe not shriek … but I did point out that letting Lilly make mistakes on course might erode some of our hard work.

It probably doesn’t matter since I’m fairly confident in saying that we will NEVER compete in agility, but I’m a girl who likes her behavior performance criteria on the specific side.

My standard fix:

• Stop
• Get Lilly to return to the redo position
• Ask her to try again
• Reward the full performance of the task

Green Handler Seeks Experienced Dog

I’ve joked before that I would love to run a really talented dog in agility, just for fun, so that I could see what it feels like at that level.

Perhaps that’s how Tom feels running Lilly on course. After all, he didn’t have to figure out HOW to teach Lilly the various agility tasks. He just gets to reap the benefits and have the fun.

As I’m sure you know, it’s quite empowering to have a dog respond in such a way.

I might have to ask those who visit us over the holidays to try and run Lilly on her course. It would be an interesting experiment to see if she will work for others the way she works for us.

From experience, we know that Lilly will do basic obedience and trick type things for other people (at least in certain settings) because she very often coped well in dog training classes (with Gigi) when we played “Pass the pup.”

Perchance to Herd?

I’m pondering all this because (a new reader/follower Aly’s suggestion on Facebook) we might try Lilly out on sheep sometime soon-ish, and goodness knows she needs to work with someone who knows sheep and herding (not me) to give it a try. Aly says her herding trainer is good with soft dogs, so we’ll have to see.

Herding is traditionally taught via “corrections,” and goodness knows Lilly would NOT take well to that at all … which is why I’ve put off any herding attempts for years now.

(Well, that and the fact that herding classes often take place in far flung locations.)